Learn Marketing, Sales, and Design in Just 1 Year (or Even Less)
You will never have complaints about business and products after getting these skills
In 2023, I have gained skills in the areas:
- Marketing
- Design
- Sales
- Product Management
As an IT guy, I always wondered how to create and promote digital products. It was too complicated, expensive, and exclusive for real gurus with 15+ years of expertise.
That’s why a person who knows only how to create mobile apps and something else (it’s me) started looking for new knowledge.
I started with product management because it’s a profession that is between business and production. It already contains marketing, sales, strategy, and business planning.
So, it looked to me as a bundle of the knowledge I was looking for. Let’s start with a short story and step-by-step guide on how you can gain that knowledge as well.
5 Years of Product Journey
I have been interested in Product Management and Product Development much earlier than a year ago. First, I thought about it at university while studying computer science.
At that time, I was already working as a developer at some company and had just written code. But my curiosity never allowed me to stay in one place, and I was always looking for new questions and answers for them.
Several times, I have tried to create my product (or project) for mobile devices in the IT sphere, but it has yet to go far beyond a working prototype. I didn’t know what to do next.
I love reading books, especially those that give me answers to my questions. Once, I read a Lean Startup.
It’s just a fantastic book about one product team that started working on their startup. They worked for a year, spent a lot of money, and knew nobody needed their product. After that, they started taking the proper steps and finally created the right product for those who needed it.
After reading that book, I’ve loved product management and everything related to that profession. For several years, I have just read books (I will write them at the end of this article) and articles on Medium from experienced Product Managers.
It was interesting, but I needed to gain experience, and all the knowledge I was gaining disappeared.
So, spending several years reading books and articles didn’t have much effect. I learned some principles and lessons, but without practice, it was nothing.
2 Months of Product Management Course
One year ago, I consistently started seeing an ad on Instagram about a Product Management course. It was a mix of Startup and Product Management.
The primary purpose of my interest in Product Management was my interest in startups. So, after checking a curriculum and asking some friends about the course teacher (several of my friends worked at the same company as that guy), I have decided.
I will take this course and put all my effort into the learning.
So, after starting, I started learning all the lecture materials, additional articles, and materials to learn each topic as best as possible.
The most crucial part was practice. When you have good experience and knowledge of something, you know better how to teach others.
So our teacher was giving us different types of practice like:
- Marketing Research
- Design Mockups
- Call Interviews
- No code prototypes
- Pitch Presentation
We have learned and tried much more in this course. After finishing this course, I learned something new that I had never known about or read about in any book.
It was so cool, so I decided to go forward.
Design Learning
I didn’t think that design was essential for those who want to make a startup, but I understood that I must have some basic knowledge.
That’s why I decided not to take any paid course but to find something on Medium or YouTube.
Luckily, I could find an excellent free YouTube course on Product Design.
I have studied Figma and the basic principles of design and found some extra resources that helped me to learn design better and see examples of it.
You may find great resources below that can help you study design.
You may find more courses on YouTube or Udemy. There are a lot of free resources on this topic; check it out.
My free YouTube course took 1–2 months to learn how to do simple mocks and prototypes in Figma. So it may work for you as well.
Marketing Learning
Marketing is one of the places where I had to start at first. Because as a science, it studies everything about customers, products, and how to create something someone needs.
Marketing is about researching and making great deals with customers who want to spend money on your solutions.
That’s why I decided to continue my journey and learn marketing after studying Product Management and Design.
This book might be one of the best choices for learning marketing, understanding how markets work, product sales, and more.
At this point, I have started learning everything that is related to marketing:
- Sales
- Neuromarketing
- Customer Psychology
- Marketing
I have also subscribed to many YouTube channels and other resources that could help me, and I will share them with you.
Sales Learning
And the latest skill I have decided to learn in 2023 is sales. Nobody has doubts that without sales, there is no deal and money in the business.
I have started looking for people who can give me the best advice and lessons in this area.
The best person who may share his knowledge in this area is Jordan Belford (or Wolf from Wall Street). It’s an excellent seller that earned millions.
I might say that this person knows how to sell and gives you all the lessons you need to:
- Become more confident
- Make better sales
- Control the process
- Give customers what they need
Above, you can see the Jordan Belford channel, where you may find many materials from his paid seminars and courses.
And also a book, Way of the Wolf, where Jordan Belford describes his straight-line method of selling.
Summary
At this point, all the skills I have learned during the year are essential.
Even if you are not looking to create startups or digital products, you should understand that Design, Marketing, and Sales disciplines are essential in many areas and businesses.
That’s why spending time learning these things would never be wasted, so you will discover critical skills that will be helpful in your life — especially sales and marketing.
